


tell me if i'm wrong

by QuietLittleVoices



Series: possibly, maybe [1]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Girls' Night Brand Strawberry Wine, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 03:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14968046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietLittleVoices/pseuds/QuietLittleVoices
Summary: Ben pines after Emily and tries to get his best friend a date.[Or; in which Ben tries to set up Sammy and Jack and fails awkwardly until he doesn't. And pines after Emily.]





	tell me if i'm wrong

**Author's Note:**

> [EDIT: Title changed from 'possibly, maybe'; made into a series; notes on what that series is about on the series card]
> 
> Ben and Emily are about 20 in this fic while Sammy and Jack are more like 23/24. 
> 
> Shout out to Courtney helloearthlings for inventing hacky au's in this fandom and supporting me through writing this. 
> 
> I promise it's way cheesier than you think it is. Like, way cheesier.

Ben sighed dreamily and leaned his elbows on the hand-off plane, watching Emily stock books in the bookstore right outside the boundary of the cafe. 

“Mary’s gonna get mad at you,” Sammy said, kicking one of Ben’s feet out from under him, causing him to go slightly off balance. 

Ben stood up and glared at Sammy with no real heat behind it. “Mary loves me; she won’t care. Anyway, we don’t have any customers!”

Sammy raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the messy bar and the unstocked cups. “Always something to do.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like you’re any better.”

“At least I don’t spend over an hour staring at our coworkers.”

“ _ Technically _ they aren’t our coworkers, since these are two different businesses,” Ben said in a familiar retort.

Sammy rolled his eyes and let it rest. He knew that Ben had real feelings for Emily and that they were actually friends, so it wasn’t a weird stalker thing he had going on, and he wouldn’t push too far on the point.

Jack, one of the other book store employees, walked up to the counter then put his travel mug on the counter. “I’m heading home for the day,” he announced, “so just a decaf latte in here, thanks.”

Sammy walked over and rang him up, punching a few extra buttons to give him a discount. It was technically against the rules, but all the bookstore employees got discounts as long as they didn’t tell Cynthia.

Ben slid over and made the drink quickly, watching as Sammy and Jack chatted quietly. Sammy laughed at something Jack said, and - yeah, he was seeing that right. Jack was  _ definitely _ checking Sammy out. 

It gave Ben an idea.

 

“Do you think Jack likes Sammy?” Ben asked Emily when they were on the phone that night. They both struggled with insomnia and usually ended up talking in the very late or very early hours. Ben turned his ringer off for everyone but Emily’s number before he fell asleep.

“I mean - yeah, of course,” she answered, sounding a little confused.

Ben sighed. “No, I mean - I mean is Jack, like,  _ into _ Sammy.”

“Oh,” Emily replied. She was silent for a second and then said, “I’m not sure. I hadn’t really thought about it before.” She paused again to think about it. “Maybe? I can pay more attention and let you know later. I think I work with him again on Thursday.”

Ben hummed quietly, hoping that it would be picked up by the speakerphone on his nightstand. “I just want Sammy to be… happy, I guess,” he said. “Not that he needs a relationship for that, obviously, but - he just seems lonely. He never talks about what he does at home or when we’re not hanging out, so I figure it can’t be much.”

“You wanna set them up?” she asked. 

“Yeah, I mean - maybe not them, specifically. But Sammy could use a date, I think.”

“Go easy on him, Benny,” she cautioned, but it wasn’t admonishing. “You’re his best friend, so you know him better than I do, but he’s pretty private. He might not appreciate it.”

“I will,” Ben said. “If he’s actually uncomfortable or anything I’ll stop, I promise. I want him to be  _ happy _ ,” he repeated.

“I know you have his best interests at heart.” Emily yawned loud enough for Ben to hear through the phone. “Hmm, I think it’s time to sleep now. Goodnight, Benny. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Goodnight, Emily.” 

Neither of them hung up right away. Ben watched as the seconds kept clicking up on the call, pushing them into the next minutes. He couldn’t hear Emily’s breathing on the other side but he couldn’t bring himself to end the call immediately. And then there was a click and the screen flashed, indicating that she had hung up. Ben locked his phone and went to sleep.

 

Ben wasn’t certain that Sammy would be…  _ receptive _ to being set up with Jack. It just wasn’t something they talked about. They had never really been ones to talk about dating or relationships, and though Ben had mentioned ex’s before, Sammy never had. And Ben didn’t care - for all he knew, there weren’t any to mention, and he wasn’t going to push. When Emily had started at the bookstore, Ben had held one-sided conversations about her with Sammy, but that was the extent of it. He was pretty sure Sammy had never had a relationship in the three years they’d been working together, which was fine, but it meant that Ben just didn’t  _ know _ .

“Are we still on for movie night on Friday?” Sammy asked when things quieted down.

“Yeah, of course,” Ben replied, tearing his eyes away from Emily in the YA section. “Hey, do you  mind if Emily comes over, too?”

“I don’t wanna be a third-wheel, dude,” Sammy teased.

Ben rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t be. You’re friends with her, too, anyway.”

Sammy shrugged. “Sure, then. I’m not buying your awful beer, though. I know you’re underage but you have bad taste.”

Ben wrinkled up his nose. “As long as you don’t bring that… ‘girls night’ or whatever it was called.”

“You just say that because you drank half a liter and drunk dialed Emily and can’t remember,” Sammy reminded him. 

“Yeah, exactly, so let’s not repeat that experience.”

“Fine. But I’m still not buying your beer.”

Ben shrugged. “Just remember we aren’t trying to get wild, okay - it’s just movie night, not a ragger.”

 

Sammy showed up half an hour past the agreed upon movie night time. Ben was used to it, when dealing with Sammy who was generally on time for shifts but rarely anything else. He only paused for a second in the doorway to take in the scene.

Ben and Emily were sitting to one side of the large second-hand sofa and Jack was sitting next to them, with enough space left on his other side for another person to slide in.

“Emily invited Jack,” Ben explained, which wasn’t technically a lie, but he had asked her to extend the invitation on his behalf.

Sammy just nodded and put the assorted drinks on the table. Ben was relieved that there was not a large pink wine bottle among the options. He went to reach for one at random, figuring that they were all probably equal given what he knew of Sammy’s non-wine preferences, but Jack grabbed it first.

“This is my favourite,” he said cheerfully, smiling over at Sammy. “You have good taste.”

Sammy grinned back and fit himself into the extra spot, which caused the others to scoot over just a bit to accommodate. Ben thought he might have seen a blush on Sammy’s face at the compliment, but he couldn’t be sure since the only light coming into the room was from the outside. “You’re in better hands with me than him,” he said, pointing his thumb towards Ben.

Ben folded a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt.”

“How unfortunate,” Sammy snarked. He turned back to Jack, but not without giving Ben one last look that made Ben a little afraid of what potential teasing would follow. “Have you ever tried Girls’ Night?”

Jack threw his head back in a laugh. “I think that’s the only time I’ve gotten blackout drunk,” he said. “It’s so good, though.”

Ben groaned at the fact that two of his friends - his  _ best friend _ included - had terrible taste in alcohol. But the shared (bad) taste lead to them chatting happily, and Ben actually saw Sammy smile and use his hands while speaking which he almost never did, so he counted it as a small win.

 

“Emily invited us to the bookstore’s trivia night on Saturday,” Ben said, trying to nonchalantly scrub down the shelf that held all the syrup bottles. 

Sammy paused and looked up from where the was trying to deep-clean the bar itself. “Will Jack be there?” he asked with very little inflection letting Ben know what kind of answer he was looking for.

Ben still counted it as a small victory that Sammy was asking at all. “I think so, but I can ask,” he answered, consciously trying to keep his voice even.

Sammy hummed and again Ben wasn’t sure what it  _ meant _ . “Ben, are you trying to set me up with him?”

Ben felt himself blush and turned away. “No,” he lied.

“‘Kay,” Sammy said, not sounding convinced. “Don’t mess with my personal life. You know I love you, but… you also know I’m private, okay? Just…” he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll come to trivia night, okay?”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to!” Ben said quickly, because there was nothing worse in his mind than him being the reason Sammy was uncomfortable. That was the  _ opposite _ of what he was trying to achieve. 

“No, I want to. I like spending time with everyone, just… don’t push it, okay?” Sammy was looking at him earnestly from overtop of the bar.

Ben nodded quickly. “Yeah, of course. Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for.”

 

Sammy arrived only a few minutes after Jack, which was more than a few minutes after Ben and Emily had secured their table and team for the trivia competition. 

Sammy sat across the table from Jack, keeping Ben and Emily between them, and Ben would have felt a little deflated at that but - he understood. He felt a little deflated anyway, not because his plan wasn’t working but because he might’ve made Sammy any amount of upset.

There were about twenty people who came to trivia night, all told, piling into the store after hours on tables and chairs pulled out of the back room. Half of them were wobbly or outright broken in places, true safety hazards, but it didn’t bother anyone.

“Ready to win again?” Jack said to Emily, his tone clearly joking.

Emily laughed. “As long as we break out last-place streak, I’m happy,” she replied.

“I have an extensive knowledge of trivia,” Ben said proudly. “I’ll be your secret weapon.”

“I don’t think there’s going to be any questions about mothman,” Sammy teased, poking Ben in the ribs and making him jump a little.

Ben and Jack objected to Sammy’s joke at the same time, and Ben turned to him excitedly. “Are you into that stuff, too?” he asked.

Jack blushed a little and ran a hand through his hair awkwardly. “It’s a hobby, I guess,” he answered, looking at Sammy almost shyly.

Ben didn’t look over to see Sammy’s reaction, launching into a conversation with Jack about his extensive knowledge of all things cryptid. He could tell Emily and Sammy were sharing a Look over his head but he didn’t care - they both indulged his interest in the odd and unusual, but neither of them shared it.

They were only cut off by Ron Begley stepping up to start off the trivia night, when all four of them got as focused as they could on the questions.

In the end, they came in second last, pulling ahead of Dan and Larry’s team of two when Ben managed to break their tie on a question about a local legend about a lake monster. He gave Sammy a smug look when the points were awarded for the question and got a disappointed head shake in return. Ben was too proud to care.

 

It seemed almost out of the blue when Sammy brought it back up, causing Ben to pause with his arm half submerged in the dishwater.

“Are you still trying to set me up with Jack - or in general?” he asked.

Ben slowly took his arm out of the water and shook it to try and get some of the water off. “No. I mean - not if you don’t want me to. I haven’t been.”

“Thanks for that, I guess,” Sammy said. He seemed a little distracted and was wiping the cloth in the same circle on the counter more times than he needed to.

“Did you… want me to?” he asked, trying to figure out what was on Sammy’s mind. He was so used to knowing what Sammy was thinking that it was weird to feel cut off, but he would give Sammy whatever time he needed.

Sammy shook his head slowly. “No, but…” he paused and seemed to come to a decision with himself. “Wanna make a bet?”

Ben looked at him hesitantly. Sammy wasn’t a big better, but the last time he’d said that Ben had downed half a bottle of Girls’ Night and he didn’t want to finish that thought. “Sure,” he said, finally, because they were at work with no access to anything that bad. 

“If you ask out Emily, I’ll ask out Jack,” he said, and Ben could see the tightness in his shoulders as he said it. He wanted to go over and say something, reassure him that Ben didn’t care - obviously Ben didn’t care, he’d been trying to set them up for three weeks! - but he knew Sammy was trying to keep it nonchalant.

“Deal,” he said, before his brain could catch up to what he had really agreed to and he felt his face heat up. “I’ll… I’ll ask her on break,” he said, centering himself in his resolve.

Sammy grinned at him, the tension melting away just a little, and Ben knew he’d said the right thing. 

Unfortunately, he had to turn back to the dishes he had been interrupted in the middle of.

 

His break came up too fast and he took off his apron, hanging it on the hook in the back, and exited out the front.

“Dude, if you really don’t want to, you don’t have to,” Sammy said quietly, but Ben shook his head.

“No, you’re right, I need to just - do it. If not now, when?” he said with a lopsided smile.

Sammy smiled back at him. “You can do it, Ben - she’ll say yes.”

“I hope so!”

Ben walked out of the cafe area slowly, looking around and finding Emily over in the Poetry section. He waved and made his way over.

“Hey,” he said, suddenly feeling even more nervous than before.

Emily smiled at him. “Hey,” she echoed. “What’s up?”

“Uh, well, see,” he stuttered. He stopped and took a deep breath.  _ You can do it. _ “Do you wanna get dinner? Like, as a date. With me?”

Emily smiled wide. “Of course, Benny. I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”

Ben felt like all the air had left his lungs. “Really?”

“Yeah. I might have asked you myself soon.”

They smiled at each other and Ben felt himself blush so he looked down. “So, um… Thursday? Does Thursday work for you?”

Emily nodded. “I work until six, but you can pick me up?”

Ben’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much. “Yeah. That sounds… perfect. I’ll, uh - I guess I’ll see you then?”

“See you then, Benny.”

Ben almost ran back to the coffee shop’s corner and Sammy smiled as soon as he saw him.

“So it worked out?” he asked.

Ben nodded. “Yeah. You were right.”

Sammy shrugged. “I usually am. Now… for my end of the deal.”

Ben almost reminded him that he didn’t have to but Sammy obviously knew that, having warned Ben of it himself. He sat down in one of the free cafe chairs, since it was pretty empty, and watched as Sammy scanned the border of where the cafe met the bookstore. He spotted Jack over by the slowly growing electronics display near the front window and waved him over.

“What’s up?” Jack asked.

“Do you wanna go on a date?” Sammy asked instead of a proper response, with more confidence than Ben had expected.

Jack looked at him, confused, and glanced over at Ben. Sammy just nodded at him. “I mean…. Sure? Date night is Wednesday, though. We can get dinner tonight, if you want to.”

Ben was confused. “Yeah. Let’s just pick something up on the way home, make a night in of it,” Sammy said.

“Okay. I’m off in an hour, but I’ll be back to pick you up,” Jack said. “I think I have to get back now, though. I’ll stop by before I leave.”

Sammy smiled at him. “See you then.”

Jack took one last glance over at Ben and walked away. Ben just started at Sammy.

“Explain,” he said. He tried not to sound mad, because he wasn’t - he was just confused.

Sammy blushed. “Jack and I are already dating.”

“How long?”

“About - about four years,” he admitted.

Ben didn’t know how to react. “How did I not know this? Do you live together? I’ve been to your apartment.”

“Yes, we live together, but - well, he has other friends. So when we hang out, he’ll go hang out with his friends. That and - and we didn’t really tell anyone.” He was voiding Ben’s gaze like he was getting paid by the second so Ben got up and forced himself into Sammy’s field of vision.

“I’m not mad,” he said. “I just - you know I love you, right? You’re my brother. I just want you to be happy. Why didn’t you tell me when you first realized I was trying to set you up?”

Sammy shrugged and smiled just a little, which Ben counted as a win. “I just - I didn’t realize right away, I only realized after…” he covered his face with one of his hands and said something that was too muffled for Ben to make out.

“What?”

“I only realized after we got engaged,” Sammy admitted and scrunched his face up like he was expecting Ben to suddenly act angry. “We decided to come out to our friends and everyone when we decided we wanted to get married, sooner rather than later, but then I realized you were doing this weird thing and I just - wanted to see what you were up to?” he said quickly, trying to get it out all in a rush. “It’s only been about two weeks, so - so you haven’t been kept in the dark there.”

“You’re  _ engaged _ ?” Ben asked, ignoring everything else Sammy had said and trying to keep his voice low because they were still in a very public place. “You’re getting married?”

Sammy’s shoulders lowered and he nodded. “I guess, yeah.”

Ben grinned and threw his arms around Sammy’s middle, even though he had coffee on his apron. “I love you,” he said, face smushed against Sammy’s shoulder. “You know that, right?”

Sammy put his arms around Ben. “Yeah. I love you, too.”

Ben pulled away and looked Sammy in the eye seriously. “You had better make me your best man, though.”

Sammy laughed and reached up to wipe his eyes, which Ben pretended not to see. “Of course.”

While the end of his plan hadn’t gone exactly as he had expected, the way Sammy was smiling at him said that he had still gotten to the goal he had desired. Sammy was happy, and it looked like he was only going to get happier.

**Author's Note:**

> I know I played fast and lose with some stuff but who cares it's (sort of) a Coffee Shop AU.
> 
> Also before you say it, I work at a coffee shop and this is based off a location in my area (not the one I work at but one nearby).
> 
> Leave a comment if you enjoyed it!!


End file.
